


Who We Are At The End of The Day

by fightforyourwrite



Category: Pocket Monsters | Pokemon (Main Video Game Series), Pocket Monsters | Pokemon - All Media Types, Pocket Monsters: Diamond & Pearl & Platinum | Pokemon Diamond Pearl Platinum Versions
Genre: Childhood Reminiscing, Conversations, F/M, Family Issues, Sandgem Town
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-05-02
Updated: 2016-05-02
Packaged: 2018-06-05 21:49:27
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,800
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/6724900
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/fightforyourwrite/pseuds/fightforyourwrite
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>While waiting to get her Pokedex evaluated, Dawn spends some time loitering with the youngest Lab Aide in Rowan's Laboratory. They do things like playing card games, discussing personal problems, and contemplating the needs of both science and faith. </p>
<p>Fortuneshipping. Laboratory Loitering. Casual Conversations.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Who We Are At The End of The Day

**Author's Note:**

> This is definitely more of a character study/character developing kind of fic. I really just wanted to expand on my interpretations of Lucas and Dawn. 
> 
> Dawn being a firm believer in Sinnoh's mythology and deities, and Lucas having family issues that deeply impacted his upbringing. 
> 
> Also, Dawn being fond of sweaters big sweaters. :)
> 
> Enjoy!

Lab aides and other assistants stepped carefully around him and Dawn as they played their game of cards. Lucas felt juvenile almost, not because they were sitting across from each other in the doorway, but because the adults who stepped around them did so in such an easy fashion. They were easy to ignore, anyone who wasn’t of any importance at Rowan’s laboratory were usually denied any attention at all. 

Dawn was here because she waiting for Professor Rowan to finish evaluating her Pokedex, and Lucas was here because he had nothing better to do. Unless of course, going home to get teased and prodded by his younger sister had some productive results to it. Playing cards with Dawn seemed more appealing to Lucas at the moment.

He liked her a lot. The girl he had gotten to know over the last few months was curious and quiet, reserved unless a situation demanded her to give it her all. It was a stark contrast to her friend, Barry, who had no reserves in letting the world hear his voice and tended to jump into situations head first, ignoring any sort of need to step back and think.

Lucas didn’t mind quiet people. He could handle moments of wordlessness when spending time with a person. He and Dawn, in their current predicament, hadn’t spoken a word to each other in a while. 

Eventually, when Dawn did speak, she placed a card on the pile between her and him and announced the word: “Gin.” 

Lucas raised an eyebrow, “Wait, I spaced out. I thought we were playing Go Fish.” 

Dawn chuckled, humoured. “Looks like I won then.” 

Another lab aide stepped over the two teenagers. Lucas knew who it was; Augustine, a foreigner from a region that he couldn’t recall at the moment. He muttered a quick  _ ‘excusez moi’ _ as he passed over them.

Dawn started gathering up the cards, “Wanna play again?” 

Lucas shook his head, placing his hand of cards on the floor, “Not now. I could use a break.”

“Fair enough,” Dawn figured, organizing all of the cards into a neat deck.

Another moment of silence played out between the two of them. Lucas watched as Dawn shuffled the deck of cards in her hands. 

For once, she wasn’t wearing her beanie or coat. It wasn’t often when Lucas saw her without them. The truth was, he thought that Dawn looked rather pretty when her beanie was off, allowing the locks of her dark hair to be exposed for once. Underneath her coat was a grey shawl-collared knit, which was a very popular fashion trend amongst the citizens of Sinnoh. It was a good look on her, he thought. 

On her right wrist, opposite of the one she kept her poketch on, there was a chain of metallic beads with a dark shine winding around her upper forearm and hand. There were larger beads placed here and there on the chain, one coloured pink, deep blue, dark grey, and bright gold. 

The beads reminded him of something, Lucas just didn’t know what yet. 

With a sigh, Lucas adjusted his glasses on his face, as they had started to droop on the bridge of his nose. He didn’t wear them outside of the lab, preferring the use of contacts to see properly in the field. He didn’t wear them often as well; sporting them in public often reminded him too much of his childhood tormentors, the people who often called him  _ ‘four-eyes’ _ or  _ ‘nerd’ _ or  _ ‘dweeb. _ ’ But at least wearing them in the lab made Lucas feel smarter, like more of an adult. It made him fit in with the other lab aides just a little more.

With his eyes placed on her, mainly due to having nothing else to focus them on, Lucas spoke. 

“So… where are you headed once you get your Pokedex back?”

Dawn shrugged her shoulders, “I‘ll probably visit my mother for a night. I do that every time I show the Prof. my ‘dex. Might as well. I mean, Twinleaf isn’t a far walk from here, so...”

Lucas nodded his head, “True, true.” 

“What about you?” Dawn asked. “Are you going to head back home eventually?”

Lucas pressed his lips into a straight line. The truth was, he wasn’t sure. “I don’t know. I could, but I don’t really want to see my family now.” 

Dawn raised an eyebrow, “... that’s a bit savage, Lucas.” 

“Okay, let me rephrase that,” Lucas started off, clearing his throat. “I don’t really want to see my dad right now. Or my sister.” 

“What is it with you and your sister?” Dawn wondered. She had met the younger girl before, the little child who went by the name of Lucy Elliott. She often liked to demean her brother, making him seem like a loser, an assumption that Dawn could not ever see herself believing.

“She likes to make fun of me when she’s bored,” Lucas explained simply. “She calls me a dweeb even though I hate it and doesn’t give me any privacy in our bedroom. I have to share a room with her, you know.” 

“I actually don’t,” Dawn claimed, somewhat bluntly. “You’re speaking to an only child here.”

Lucas drummed his fingers against his knee, “Oh, my bad.”

“What about your dad?” Dawn carried on, seeming truly curious about Lucas’s family life. “What’s up with you and him?” 

“Have you met my dad?” Lucas asked her. 

Dawn nodded, albeit, slowly. “I think so. I might’ve ran into him while I was in Jubilife. He’s… okay. Straightforward, helpful, looks a lot like you.” 

Lucas rolled his eyes, “Everyone says that.” 

“You’re wearing glasses,” Dawn added, motioning to the frames on Lucas’s face. “You look just like him.” 

Quickly, he grabbed his spectacles by the hinge and pulled them off his face. It was a reflex whenever people pointed out that he truly looked like the son of Laurence Elliott. 

“I get that a lot,” Lucas explained. “Though, I feel like the only way me and my dad are alike are in looks. Nothing more.” 

“What do you mean?” Dawn questioned, curious. 

Lucas shrugged his shoulders and let out a sigh, “It’s a long story. Sometimes, I feel like I’m too stupid to be my dad’s son. You know, he’s been studying Pokemon ever since he was 8. When he got older, he spent 10 years travelling around the world just to study abroad.” For a second, he let his eyes glance down at his glasses, a sadness emanating in his azure gaze. “I can’t compete with that. I can’t even complete a Pokedex without it getting stolen.”

Dawn knew just exactly what he was referring to. She was with him on the day a few Galactic Grunts snatched his Pokedex. She fought beside him to get it back because she knew just how scared he was losing it. In addition, Team Galactic seemed to be causing hijinx in every new city she had stepped to. She figured that getting used to fighting them would be beneficial to a person in her situation.

“That wasn’t your fault, Lucas,” Dawn reminded him. “Those guys from Galactic punched you in the face and gave you a black eye, what else could you have done?” 

Lucas put his glasses back on his eyes. He mumbled a quiet  _ ‘I dunno _ ’ as he adjusted them on his face. He didn’t want to think back to that day, it was one of the worst ones of his short life. The fact that he was physically assaulted didn’t hurt him as much as the humiliation of his failure did. When the Galactic Grunts took his ‘dex, he felt his emotions start to flare up. At that moment, he could’ve burst into tears and stayed that way for a long time. Luckily, he didn’t and moved on to fix his problem, but the opportunity was so blatantly in front of him and hard to ignore.

With his vision perfected once again, he refocused his eyes on Dawn’s right wrist and the metallic beads wrapped around it. 

“So what’s that on your wrist?” He spoke in a way that implied that he wanted to change the subject.

“Hm?”

Lucas pointed to her right hand, “Those.”

“They’re prayer beads. I’ve had them since I was a kid.” Dawn raised her arm up and towards him to give her friend a better look. “You know about the Creation Trio, right? Dialga, Palkia, and Giratina?”

Lucas nodded simply, “Yeah, I do.”

“The coloured beads are supposed to represent them,” Dawn started off. She pointed to the blue, “This one’s for time…” Then, she moved her finger towards the pink, “…this one’s for space…” Finally, she stopped with the gray one. “…and then there’s antimatter.” 

The pieces of the puzzle finally pulled themselves together in Lucas’s head, Dawn could see it in his eyes. “Of course.” He reached forward and pointed to the golden charm that was just a bit bigger than the other coloured ones. “And let me guess, that one’s supposed to represent Arceus.” 

Dawn grinned at him, minutely, but genuinely. “You guessed right.”

She pulled her hand back towards herself, “I’ve been reading about Sinnoh’s myths ever since I was young. My mom said that I was obsessed with them growing up. They were more than just nursery rhymes or stories, they felt so real to me.” Looking at the beads, a warm look overtook Dawn’s eyes, fond memories flowing through her mind. 

“When I was 9, my mom went to Celestic Town for a contest. She brought this back with her for me because she knew that I would love them. I’ve been keeping these with me ever since I left home.”

“Because of the sentimentality?” Lucas wondered. “Or for their intended purpose?”

Dawn shrugged, “I guess a little bit of both? Who knows what we’d have to turn to if everything else failed?” 

“You certainly have a lot of faith,” Lucas noted, stretching his arms just slightly. “Honestly, you never struck me as the type.” 

“I can see that,” Dawn figured. She could understand to an extent, seeing as she was a girl who grounded her mind on a basis of practicality and logic. Most people who trusted Sinnoh’s deities were a little more, there wasn’t any other word for it, fanatic. Others tended to see them as nothing more than preachy nuisances. 

“But I think it’s healthy to have some faith, even if it’s just a little bit,” she added on. “I’m certain even you would have some as well.”

“I have a bit,” Lucas admitted, his voice sounding fair and honest. “Though, spending all of my spare time in a science lab makes things a little hard for me in that field.” 

Dawn raised an eyebrow, “Why should it? Faith and science have the ability to coexist in perfect harmony. I don’t let my love for the Creation Trio and The Original One contradict my quest to complete the Pokedex. There’s no point it letting it deter me from helping Professor Rowan with his research.”

Lucas grinned respectfully, definitely trying to keep the conversation light and casual. “That’s true.”

“Whether it be through years of research to prove a theory correct, or hours of prayer and devotion, we’re all just people trying to make sense of the world that we live in. That’s who we are at the end of the day,” Dawn continued. She took a breath, “To me, science and faith go hand in hand, because the words of scholars from the past and present just might be the closest thing we have to understanding actions of a god.” 

Her words were spoken with such conviction and passion, Lucas realized that he just had to say something intellectual in reply. He took a breath after a second of silence and said: 

“…that’s pretty deep, Dawn.” 

At least no one could say that he didn’t try. 

Dawn shrugged, “My mom says that same thing about me. I’d be rich if I got a pearl every time I went off on a rant like this to her. Sometimes, I wonder how she raised me so easily.” 

“I think she raised you well,” Lucas admitted. “Personally, you’re doing a lot better than me.” 

Dawn was about to speak up again, possibly to halt his self-deprecating comments, but before she could, another person walked up to the two teenagers in the doorway and didn’t step over them this time.

Dawn and Lucas both looked to the left to see a pair of brown leather dress shoes. Glancing up and across a blue waistcoat and black tie, they both realized just who it was. 

“Professor Rowan!” Lucas stood up quickly, almost stumbling onto the floor in the process. Once on his feet, he offered a hand down to Dawn, which she grabbed onto promptly in order to get into a standing position more quickly.

Rowan gave his assistant a stern nod, “Lucas, I see you’ve been keeping Dawn company all this time.” 

“Well, uh…” Lucas started to stutter, which wasn’t something unusual for him to do in front of the Professor. “There wasn’t anything else for me to do at the moment. So I might’ve just… loitered.”

Rowan could sense the boy’s nervous disposition. “Makes sense.” He turned to Dawn, “And you, young lady, I’ve finished evaluating your Pokedex.” From behind his back he presented to Dawn her electronic encyclopedia. “Excellent work, just as always.” 

Dawn reached over and took her ‘dex back from her elder, “Thank you, Professor.” 

“Keep it up,” Rowan reminded. “Because frankly, I’m confident that you’ll have this completed in no time.” 

“I’ll certainly try to, Professor,” Dawn stated, giving him a nod of her head. “You can always count on me.” 

“Well, good day then, Dawn,” Rowan said. Then, he turned to his youngest aide. “You as well, Lucas.” With all of his business done, Rowan proceeded to walk away from the two teenagers and disappeared into his office, closing the door and keeping it locked. His coldness wasn’t unusual to them by now. Underneath it all, everyone knew that he was a kind and caring man. 

Once they were alone again, the lab sounding unusually silent at the moment, Dawn and Lucas looked each other in the eye. 

After a second of looking, the female member of the duo spoke up, “Uh… I should go.”

Lucas nodded hastily, “Of course. Wouldn’t want to hold you back from seeing your mother.” 

Dawn started walking towards the door of the lab, Lucas following behind her. She had hung her coat, hat, and scarf on a communal rack and set her duffle bag down not too far beside it. Dawn grabbed her coat off the wooden structure near the door and pulled it over her shawl-collared knit with a casual effort. 

Politely, Lucas took her beanie off the rack as she did up her coat and held it out to her. 

When her coat was secure, Dawn soon noticed her friend holding her hat in front of her face. “Oh, thanks.” She took it quickly and pulled it onto her head, tugging it over the strands of her neatly combed hair. 

“No problem,” Lucas responded, giving her that friendly smile he always gave to people he was comfortable with. 

“You know, you should come by to my place for dinner one night,” Dawn suggested, simply speaking to fill the awkward silences between Lucas and her. “My mom actually likes it when I bring home friends.”

He looked interested at the prospect, his eyes lighting up just slightly. “That actually sounds great. Maybe I will one day.” 

“My mom’s pretty nice,” assured Dawn. “She’s used to Barry being around our house, so I’m sure that she can handle you.” 

Lucas let out a chuckle, “Ah, noted.” 

Once her scarf was securely wrapped around her neck, Dawn picked her bag up off the floor and slung it over her shoulder. 

“Well, uh... I’ll see you later then,” Lucas said, trying his best to stay composed. He reached his hand out to her in a fashion that was nothing less than proper. 

“You too,” Dawn agreed. She reached out as well and grasped his hand in hers. They shook their grips for a brief moment, squeezing their fingers for a few long seconds. 

When they let go of each other, Dawn turned around in a rather quick fashion, her hand tingling as it reached out to grab the doorknob. “Okay, bye,” she muttered, just a little hastily. 

When she left, Lucas couldn’t help but wonder if he had held onto her hand for too long. Holding her felt easy, like falling asleep, but yet, he felt something fluttering inside her hand, even long after letting go of Dawn’s hand.

**Author's Note:**

> Also, there's a not-so-subtle cameo of a character from a future gen. Waffle points if you could point it out!


End file.
